Stockman said that he had assurances that House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) would sign the petition. McCaul's office, however, told The Hill that, while the chairman is among the 162 co-sponsors of Wolf's select committee bill, he had not yet seen the discharge petition.

Stockman was joined at the press conference by Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas), who filed the only Republican discharge petition in the last Congress. It failed after garnering only 30 votes.

“The truth needs to come out,” Gohmert said, “and this is what it's going to take.”